Kingston SSDNow V+ (gen.2) 128GB SSD Review

There is one thing which has become abundantly evident in the SSD market over the last year or so: while there may be a near-infinite number of companies who want to get into the lucrative SSD market, there is a fairly limited number of OEMs qualified enough to build a decent drive or release a proper controller. In the past we have looked at many solid state drives from many different manufacturers, but when we took a closer look at them a few key names kept reappearing: Intel, JMicron, Samsung and Indilinx. These are some of the few companies that have succeeded in penetrating the market with high performance or value-oriented controllers and OEM solutions. There is however another company that is making some serious inroads into the controller market: Toshiba.

In today’s review, we will be taking a much closer look at the Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB Solid State Drive which just so happens to sport one of these new Toshiba controllers. To make matters even more interesting, Kingston decided to deck out their new SSDNow wwith Toshiba NAND as well. While this may seem interesting, Kingston holds an interesting place in the SSD landscape simply because we are not aware of any other company who has sought out, and marketed so many different controllers (Intel, JMicron, Samsung and now Toshiba). While it may cause some confusion when going from generation to generation, they do seem to be striving towards giving their customers the best possible bang for their performance dollars, no matter what the budget. All in all, the inclusion of Toshiba into the mix looks like a more than interesting solution from a performance standpoint.

Toshiba may not be as well known in the Solid State arena as Samsung, Intel, JMicron or Indilinx but this does not mean they are rank amateurs at it; in fact, they were the inventors of NAND flash. While other companies may be more recognized in SSD circles, Toshiba is considered by many to be the very definition of “innovator” in many circles. The fact that their NAND-related patent portfolio is quite literally larger than anyone else’s out there and other companies come to them to negotiate cross licensing agreements does underscore exactly how much knowledge and experience Toshiba has in this arena. These are the people who push the envelope and were real trailblazers in the world of NAND manufacturing. Does this instantly translate into praise-worthy solid state drive controllers? That is open to debate as newcomers such as Intel, Sandforce and Indilinx are dominating right now in that corner of the market, but we wouldn’t bet against Toshiba no matter how good our bookie’s odds were.

This new revision of the SSDNow V+ 128GB is starting to become readily available at retailers and e-tailers alike and the lowest price we have seen the 128GB version advertised for was around $280 Canadian but it seems to fluctuate up and down from week to week. This price point certainly places this new drive at the very edge of the value orientated spectrum and some could argue it crosses over into the more enthusiast end of the market. You could make this argument as this is almost what a high end Indilinx-based SSD like the Corsair X, Patriot Torqx or the original G. Skill Falcon goes for. With this in mind, Kingston’s new Toshiba-based drive has some heavy competition stacked against it. Let’s see what it can do.